After Xiao Daocheng's death, the crown prince Xiao Zhao naturally inherited the throne.
Although Xiao Daocheng opened up his contradictions with the crown prince Xiao Zhao not long ago, he said to Xiao Zhao on his deathbed: "The reason why I was able to build a country and establish a career was because of the cheapness of the cannibalism of the Liu royal family, and you must take this as a warning." ”
Xiao Daocheng's words can really be described as "People will die, and their words are good." And the crown prince Xiao Zhao obviously agreed with his father's last words. After succeeding to the throne, Xiao Zhao began to centralize power, and in the process of centralization, he continued to strengthen the power of imperial subordinates (mainly pawns).
Many people did not understand Xiao Zhao's approach, because in their view: the pawn was a subordinate of the imperial family, how could it restrain the prince?
This statement is not correct, because it ignores the sensitivity of the royal family.
If the emperor encounters an accident, it is most likely that he will succeed him to the throne by his own son or other royal family, so the emperor is always extremely sensitive to the every move of the imperial family.
If there is a disagreement between the royal family and the pawn, who should listen to? In most cases, there is no explicit rule.
In traditional drama, there is always a classic bridge section: the young man and the old butler go out together, encounter one thing after another, and make a story.
When the young prince and the old butler have a disagreement, who should decide? This question is usually unanswered.
Theoretically, the old butler was the representative of the old master, so he had the responsibility to restrain the young man. If the old butler did not fulfill his responsibilities and allowed the young man to run into trouble, the old master would inevitably punish him. If the old butler fulfills his responsibility, the young man still ignores the old butler's persuasion, so that if he breaks out of a catastrophe, the old master will definitely punish the old butler for poor supervision.
Theoretically, the young prince was a young master, and naturally had the power to command the old butler. If the old butler did not obey the orders of the young prince and could not say a reason that the old master could accept, the old master would definitely punish the old butler. If the young prince abuses his power and ignores the restraints of the old butler, he will also be punished by his father.
Both the young prince and the old butler can insist on their own opinions, but they are all responsible for their own actions. Because when they return home, the old master will judge the right and wrong of their behavior and give appropriate rewards and punishments. From this point of view, the game between the young prince and the old butler must be very complicated, because their game will always be supervised and arbitrated by a third party, which will determine their fate.
In this game process, the old butler is more disadvantaged. If the young man runs into a big disaster, the old butler will be punished to a certain extent, regardless of whether he has fulfilled his responsibilities or not.
The same is true of the game between royalty and pawns. In the imperial family's acre and three points of land, who has the final say? This is not explicitly stated. But most of the time, when there was a disagreement between them, the emperor would always favor the imperial family.
In other words, if the imperial family is in trouble, but the pawn does not advise, then the emperor can naturally throw the black cauldron on the head of the pawn: blame you for not doing your best to assist!
If the pawn does his best to persuade, but the imperial family insists on going his own way, so that in the end, the emperor will fight fifty big boards: both sides are responsible, and no one should try to escape!
But Xiao Zhao did not do this, and when he handled similar cases, he was accustomed to favoring the pawn.
This change comes inadvertently and is very subtle. But for the old oilman who has been messing around in the official arena for a long time, they can capture this kind of information in the shortest possible time. In this context, the pawn usually dares to let go of the power struggle with the royal family, and the royal family will always appear to be afraid. Over time, the royal family will gradually lose the right to speak in its own acres and three points of land.
When the history books write about the relationship between the royal family and the canon, they are always simple and exaggerated.
According to historical records, the royal family who do something small (such as wanting to go out for a while, wanting to eat and drink something) needs to get the consent of the pawn, otherwise it will not be satisfied. If the royal family provoked the pawn, they would immediately be punished by the emperor.
When asked why, he said: "Born innocent, and when imprisoned for a while, take a lotus root and a cup of pulp, and consult the marshal; if the marshal is absent, he will endure thirst every day." The states only hear of signing commanders, not of the history of thorns. Why not? ---Zizhi Tongjian, Qi Jiwu
This kind of content should not be far from the truth, but the importance of the event is definitely exaggerated.
If you have to report food and drink, then the royal family is not a royal family at all, but a prisoner. From this point of view, this record should not be true, but the emperor favors the canon, and the imperial family is afraid of the tail, which should be an indisputable fact, but it is not so exaggerated.
Later, Xiao Zhao's fourth son, Xiao Zixiang, raised an army to rebel, directly killing all the important subordinates around him (including the pawns). If the imperial family had already mixed up to the point where they had to report even eating and drinking, how could Xiao Zixiang gather an army? Who would listen to such a "royal prisoner"?
Zi Xiang was furious, and Zhi Yin and eight other people were killed in the back hall to enlighten them. The Lord wanted to forgive Jiang Wei, but he was dead and angry. - Zizhi Tongjian, Qi Jisan
In the era of Emperor Xiao Zhao of Qiwu, the most famous royal family should be Xiao Ziliang, the king of Jinling, who was the second son of Xiao Zhao, who from an early age advocated qinggao and treated people sincerely, and people with outstanding talents gathered under his door. This kind of style makes Xiao Ziliang's limelight even overshadow prince Xiao Changmao.
Zi Liang rarely has a clean and virtuous, a good scholar, a place where there is no doubt, a favorite guest, and the world's talents and learning are all traveling. - Book of Southern Qi, vol. 40, Liechuan 21, King Wu 17
The people gathered under Xiao Ziliang's men were usually the sons of magnates, including Xiao Shunzhi's son Xiao Yan (later Emperor Wu of Liang), Wang Rong, the grandson of Wang Shengda, Xiao Chen, the nephew of Xiao Huikai, Liu Yun of Liu Yuanjing' nephew, Xie Shu's grandson Xie Jian, and Wang Ya's grandson Wang Shengru, all of whom had very high reputations.
On the surface, Xiao Ziliang can have this status because he has outstanding personality charm, but the deeper reason is not so.
It has always been a political taboo for the crown prince to make friends with guests. For example, Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, was definitely a benevolent emperor, but he also directly slaughtered more than a thousand people because of his sons' wide friendship.
The reason why the prince can make friends with guests is usually because of three reasons:
1. The Emperor acquiesced or connived at the Emperor in the hope of expanding the imperial power in this way;
2. The Emperor acquiesced or connived at the Crown Prince, hoping that the Crown Prince would have the ability to balance the Crown Prince;
Third, the imperial power weakened, and the prince began to form gangs and factions to manage his own power.
The third reason why Xiao Ziliang was able to make friends with guests was to exclude first, Xiao Zhao could force his father, the founding emperor Xiao Daocheng, into a corner, which was definitely a strong emperor; the first reason could also be ruled out, because Xiao Zhao had always adopted a repressive attitude towards the emperor, otherwise he would not have strengthened the power of the pawn.
Excluding two wrong answers, the only answer should be the correct answer: Xiao Zhao acquiesced to Xiao Ziliang's wide friendship with guests, just to contain Prince Xiao Changmao.
Since Xiao Zhao chose to suppress the imperial family, he naturally did not dare to suppress the prince anymore. Otherwise, when the crown prince becomes emperor, he will only be killed by the powerful ministers.
But looking back at that year, Xiao Daocheng had no choice but to face Xiao Zhao's rise, and Xiao Zhao naturally did not want this to happen again. Therefore, when Xiao Zhao chose Tou Changmao as crown prince, he also chose to strengthen the power of Xiao Ziliang, the king of Jinling.
What is the relationship between Crown Prince Xiao Changmao and Xiao Ziliang, the King of Jinling? It is impossible to be sure that there is no record of their conflict in the history books, nor a story of their brotherly harmony.
In my opinion: Crown Prince Xiao Changmao and King Xiao Ziliang are both understanding people, even if they hate each other to the point of gritting their teeth, they will never infighting.
Because they all understand their situation.
Crown Prince Xiao Changmao understood in his heart that the reason why Xiao Ziliang, the King of Jinling, was able to have such a position was entirely set up by his father Xiao Zhao to balance himself, so he really did not have the need to eliminate Xiao Ziliang, because he might not be able to do this. Even if he really did this, Xiao Zhao would definitely support another younger brother to balance himself.
Xiao Zi, the King of Jinling, understood in his conscience that the reason why he could have this status was entirely because his father, Xiao Zhao, needed to use himself to restrain The Crown Prince Xiao Changmao, and definitely did not want to replace him. If you are bent on competing with your eldest brother for the position of prince, sooner or later you will embark on the road of no return. Because such a big thing as competing for the position of prince is usually open to the bow and there is no turning back.
In order to prevent Xiao Ziliang, the king of Jinling, from becoming too powerful, Xiao Zhao also asked the crown prince Xiao Changmao to handle state affairs instead of himself. When the history books talk about this matter, they all say that it is because Xiao Zhao is greedy for enjoyment, in fact, this is just a means for Xiao Zhao to cultivate the power of the prince.
Xiao Zhao's starting point was good, but the result was that Crown Prince Xiao Changmao bred undeserved ambitions. He was like Xiao Zhao when he was the crown prince, and he began to blatantly violate the rules. As for Xiao Changmao's blatant violation of the system, no one dared to report to Emperor Xiao Zhao either.
Xiao Zhao accidentally passed by the East Palace where Prince Xiao Changmao was located, and found that it was more majestic and magnificent than the imperial palace, and he was angry in his heart, and immediately prepared to start cleaning up Xiao Changmao.
He had tasted prince Dongtian, and when he saw its magnificence, he was furious and accepted him as the commander-in-chief; the prince hid it, and was reprimanded by him. - Zizhi Tongjian, Qi Jisi
But just as Xiao Zhao was preparing to move, Crown Prince Xiao Changmao died. If Xiao Changmao does not die, what will be the end? Needless to say.
Looking back at what happened between Xiao Daocheng and Xiao Zhao, not long after the contradictions between the two sides were made public, Xiao Daocheng died, and now it is not long before the contradictions between Xiao Zhao and Xiao Changmao are made public, and Xiao Changmao has died again. While I can't draw any definitive conclusions, this result is thought-provoking enough.
But one thing I'm sure of is this: even if Xiao Changmao lived, he would never become the second Xiao Zhao, just as Li Tai, the King of Wei, would never become the second Li Shimin. Their seniority and prestige were too far apart, and although Xiao Changmao and Li Tai both took their father emperor as an example, they did not have the strength of their father.
Recommended reading of related articles in previous periods:
Xiao Daocheng was fierce and fierce, and Liu Song Was weak and incompetent
Xiao Daocheng's ambitions were revealed, and the Langya Wang clan aided and abetted the abuse
Xiao Daocheng ascended the throne as emperor, and Wang Xie exerted his power to control the overall situation
Xiao Daocheng was secretly fighting between father and son, and the crown prince Xiao Zhao was powerful